The "AHA" Moment

76THE “AHA!” MOMENT

and how to harness it

WORDS | Jan Hills

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“Aha! I solved it!”

I’m writing this when I should be working on an idea for a client. I’ve done the research, thought hard about the problem and....Blank. What to do? I need some insight but nothing is coming. The harder I think, the less inspired I feel and the boss is looking at me with the expression on his face that I should be on to the next project. How can I come up with ideas if my brain is full of concerns, pressure and hassle?

The short answer is I or you probably won’t come up with an idea or at least not a very inspired one. Work can be a challenge: so many problems to solve and so much to do that there’s little time to think about the issues, let alone come up with inspiring ideas. If you are looking for inspiration, thinking harder may actually be the wrong thing to be doing. What is the right thing? According to studies of how your brain works it is to stop thinking about the problem. This is counter intuitive. But when you read the science you know it’s true because when you have had a breakthrough idea this is how it’s happened. You were walking to work thinking about nothing in particular or in the shower or at the gym. The science resonates with your experience.

78THE “AHA!” MOMENT

The science

People tend to solve problems in two different ways. Either they work logically through the evidence, or the solution pops into their mind along with a feeling that the answer is right. We call this insight, or an “Aha!” moment. Insight can save you lots of work and may even get you to be more productive, creative and effective, but it’s seldom included in a job specification or reviewed at appraisal. And most people’s working patterns and environment actually work against this insight happening.

Where does inspiration come from?

When I ask people how they solve problems at work, especially problems that are creative and inspiring I consistently find that they don’t come to the solution through analysis; the answer always arrives suddenly, usually when the issue is out of conscious awareness - just as they fall asleep or wake up, during exercise, when they’re in the shower, basically times when the brain is not “busy”.

What is insight?

We’re not talking about general creativity here: that’s a process, a way of thinking and perceiving. Insight is also different to intuition, which is a nudge or a hint about the direction you need to take, rather than the whole solution.

Insight is sometimes called an epiphany, an “aha” moment or an “eureka’ feeling. Buddhists use meditation to help solve problem using insight or “vipassana nana.”

It’s the moment of clarity when a solution comes to you, and you know it’s correct, The whole answer tends to come at once. And it can happen in odd ways. There are numerous examples in history of these insight moments occurring, maybe two of the most famous are Archimedes an ancient Greek who had a problem with bath water and Albert Einstein who produced miraculous ideas from ‘nowhere’ which changed our understanding of how the world works.

Unconscious processing

Beeman’s research suggests that insight tends to involve connections between small numbers of neurons.

An insight is often a long-forgotten memory, or a combination of memories aligned in new ways. These memories don’t have lots of neurons linking them together, which is why we need a quiet mind to notice the new connections and the insight they provide. A busy mind with little down-time tends to overlook the insight. You notice insights when the overall activity level in the brain is low and you are not busy thinking or doing very much; you might be in the shower, walking in the country or just dropping off to sleep.

How do insights work?

Mark Beeman of Northwestern University is probably the best-known and most respected neuroscientist working on insight. He summarises the elements that make up insight as unconscious processing: solutions come to people when they’re not thinking about the problem in the same way as they have before (think Archimedes in his bath). A relaxed mind: you’re calm, and ideally in a good mood. And a sudden answer: when the solution comes it’s a surprise but you’re confident in it – you just know it works.

Beeman also found that these sudden answers tend to be correct: 92-94% of insight answers were correct compared with about 80% of answers produced by logical analysis.

“When the solution comes it’s a surprise but you’re confident in it – you just know it works”

So here’s a bit more detail on those elements, with the scientific evidence pointing to how insight happens and how you can create the optimum conditions for your own insights.

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Inward-looking

Beeman has also found insight happens when we are looking “beyond the box,” not at the problem, but inside ourselves. Our attention can be externally focused (reading this article) or internally focused (an image has been generated in your mind’s eye by a word on the page).

We tend to flick between these two states all the time. When people have insights they are often “mind-wandering,” according to psychologist Jonathan Schooler, rather than focused on the problem. Mark Beeman has recorded reduced activity in the visual and auditory cortex just before the moment of insight, which indicates that people shut out external stimuli to save brain resources for noticing the insight.

Relaxed positive mind

Beeman can predict which method (logic or insight) someone will use to solve a problem by the type of activity in their brain immediately before the problem is presented to them. He says the mental state determines our approach, and also personal preference. Someone’s resting state of brain activity also indicates which approach they may take.

In a similar study, Joydeep Bhattacharya of Goldsmiths and Bhavin Sheth of the University of Houston identified that the brain knows how it will solve a problem eight seconds before the conscious answer appears. Sheth suggests this could be the brain capturing transformational thought in action (the “Aha!” moment) before the brain’s owner is consciously aware of it.

Positive mood

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that being in a good mood helps problem-solving, and it’s well-supported by the science. Participants who were happy when they arrived for an experiment, or who were put into a positive mood in the lab, solved 10% more problems overall, and solved 20% more of them by insight.

A positive mood induces a broader focus of attention, allowing more creative and flexible responses which are good for tackling complex issues. Negative emotions tend to increase physiological arousal, narrow focus and restrict behaviour. When people are happy their perception is wider; when they’re anxious they exhibit more “tunnel vision.”

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Sudden answerIf you want insights you need to stop trying to solve a problem.

A distinctive feature of problem-solving is that people get stuck. They go round and round the data and the issues and can’t see the solution. This happens because we tend to get fixated on a small set of solutions. The more we work on this same wrong solution, the more we prime the brain for that solution and the harder it is to think of new ideas.

Insights tend to happen when people give up, at least temporarily.

Psychologist Stellan Ohlsson’s “inhibition theory” indicates that we need to inhibit the wrong solutions for the right one to come to our attention. Also, effort tends to involve a lot of electrical activity, and can reduce the likelihood of noticing the quiet signals of insight. You are more likely to get an answer to a problem if you let go of trying (remember: we have many more resources for non-conscious processing than for conscious processing).

How to have more insight

Creating insight in the organisationAnd how do you apply all this to your wider work context?

When we’re solving problems in conjunction with other people at work, we tend to do the opposite of what the science indicates will be most effective. We put pressure on ourselves with a deadline, we gather more data, we brainstorm as a group... all of which demands a lot of brain-processing and makes it hard to have insight. It also tends to reduce the range of solutions as a group conforms to consensus, collective thinking.

A better approach is to define a question as a group, then for people to individually take time off and allow their brains to process and solve the problem. The group then comes together to review and agree on the solutions.

You’ll find the steps for creating insight are useful in many work situations. And if your work environment isn’t conducive use the science to help persuade your boss and colleagues to make some changes.

Following on from Beeman’s research we’ve created a shorthand model to help you remember the steps to increase insight. But remember that first it’s important to put your brain into the state that increases the chances of insight occurring: relax and put yourself in a good mood by watching a funny film, going for your favourite walk or chilling with your favourite person.

A guide to increasing insight:

While insight is rewarding we need to reinforce the new neural links to maintain focus and action. So write down the insight, explain it to someone else, or visualise yourself with the problem solved.

Step

Awareness

Activity

Review and research the problem to be solved. At this point you may feel a little stuck if you are concerned about solving the problem, or you may feel focused.

You are more likely to get an answer to a problem if you let go of trying

Hold back

Stop trying to actively solve the problem. “Put it on the back burner” and get engaged in a completely different type of activity: go for a walk, or tidy the office.

Answer

This is the moment of insight. Usually accompanied by energy. Within the brain a reward of dopamine is released when the answer appears.

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